Line #16 Trivia/MyBigFatGreekWedding


1	!!The film
2	* CaliforniaDoubling: A movie about events that took place in Winnipeg, written by a Winnipeg writer, starring a Winnipeg actress... was set in Chicago and filmed primarily in Toronto.
3	* TheCharacterDiedWithHim: Michael Constantine, who played patriarch Gus Portokalos, passed away in 2021 at age 94 and as a result, Gus's passing is written into the third movie as a major driving force of the plot. Bruce Gray passed away at 81 in 2017 and thus, Rodney Miller—Ian's father—is also said to be gone in the last year too.
4	* TheDanza:
5	** For some reason, Toula's name was changed to Nia for the TV series, even though everything else about the film (barring only John Corbett's replacement by Steven Eckholdt) remained the same for the series. The sequel reversed this change.
6	** Michael Constantine who plays Gus was born Gus Efstratiou.
7	* DawsonCasting: Vardalos was 39 when the movie was released, but Toula is 30.
8	* DevelopmentHell: Nia Vardalos confirmed in 2021 that a third film had been about to go into production the previous year, but the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic put a halt to filming before it even began.
9	** It finally began filming in June 2022 and wrapped production that August and was released in September 2023.
10	* DirectedByCastmember: Nia Vardalos directed the third film and reprised her role as Toula Portakalos.
11	* ExecutiveMeddling: A rare positive example, as many of the best things about the film turned out to be studio-mandated changes that Nia Vardalos fought tooth and nail. Her entire career since the film is a testament to how badly it could have gone.
12	* FakeNationality: Multiple examples.
13	** Nia Vardalos is a Greek-Canadian playing a Greek-American (though she has become a naturalized US citizen since then).
14	** Lainie Kazan is Russian Jewish on her father's side and Turkish Jewish on her mother's side.
15	** Andrea Martin is an Armenian-American; the scene where Rodney & Harriet try to recall the ethnicity of Rodney's secretary, and at one point wonder if she was Armenian, may be a reference to this.
16	-->Is Armenia close to Greece?
17	** Gia Carides is Greek-Australian (she was in ''Film/StrictlyBallroom'' and is married to Anthony [=LaPaglia=]), as is Creator/LouisMandylor.
18	** Creator/JoeyFatone is Italian-American.
19	* InMemoriam: The third film was dedicated to Bruce Gray (who played Rodney Miller), Constantine Vardalos (Nia Vardalos' real-life father who played a chanter in the first two films), and Michael Constantine (who played Gus Portakalos), who passed away in 2017, 2020, and 2021, respectively.
20	* MagnumOpusDissonance: After several years of trying and failing to get a sitcom off the ground, Nia Vardalos decided to instead use her ideas to create a film script, hoping that it would lead to a MorePopularSpinOff series in the way that ''Film/{{MASH}}'' did. ''My Big Fat Greek Wedding'' would become a massive box-office hit (and its eventual sequel would also be profitable, if poorly reviewed), but the sitcom it produced, ''My Big Fat Greek Life'', got terrible reviews and viewing figures, and was cancelled after just seven episodes.
21	* OneHitWonder: This was Nia Vardalos's only project to have any sort of success. Her subsequent projects have mostly failed critically and financially. After ten years of failed projects she managed to get a sequel to this film off the ground, which actually did do reasonably well at the box-office, but further reinforced the perception that her only major successes have been from this series (and even then it's tempered by how badly ''My Big Fat Greek Life'' bombed).
22	* TheOtherDarrin: Nia Vardalos and most of Toula's family came along for the TV series, but John Corbett had to be recast due to other commitments.
23	* QueerCharacterQueerActor: In ''My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3'', nonbinary character Victory is played by Melina Kotselou, who is also non-binary.
24	* RealLifeRelative: Ian Gomez, Nia's real life husband who was directly involved with the inspiration for the movie, plays a friend of the groom. Leads to an ActorAllusion, as Ian Gomez's character flatly states that there's no way that a gorgeous woman like Toula would even look at a guy like him.
25	* SequelGap: The second film was released 14 years after the original, while the third film came out 7 years after the sequel, although ten years had passed in the second film and roughly a year after that in the third film InUniverse.
26	* SleeperHit: It was a $5 million indie with no bankable actors (Creator/JohnCorbett, known for a stint on ''Series/SexAndTheCity'', and Music/{{NSYNC}}'s Joey Fatone were the film's biggest names) and almost no marketing budget, and opened in only about a hundred theaters, but strong performance and positive word-of-mouth allowed it to expand, eventually reaching wide release (600+ theaters) in its sixteenth week. Its box office returns defied industry gravity, increasing for six consecutive weekends, and then barely dropping week after week. It grossed $241 million domestically and was the fifth highest grossing film of the year, beating several big-budget tentpoles including ''Film/AustinPowersInGoldmember'', ''Film/MenInBlackII'', and ''Film/DieAnotherDay''. It finally left theaters after a run of 52 weeks, 28 in which were in wide release, marking one of the longest runs ever for a film in the home video era. It set a few impressive domestic box office records: the highest-grossing film (not adjusted for inflation) to never spend a weekend at #1 [[note]]When adjusted for inflation, ''[[Film/Gremlins1984 Gremlins]]'' and ''Film/DancesWithWolves'' earned more[[/note]], and the the highest grossing film without major studio backing.
27	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
28	** Creator/TomHanks helped produce the film but found some difficulty getting it made. The studios liked the idea but wanted to cut the "Big," "Fat," and "Greek" part out and cast someone like Music/JenniferLopez in the main role (as a thirty year old woman who has trouble dating, yeah). That's the reason it went indie and turned out the way it did.
29	** Creator/MiaSara was considered for the role of Cousin Jennie.
30
31	!!Meta
32	* For all of Gus's bluster about Greek words, ''Portokalos'' isn't even a native Greek word! It's derived from the name {{UsefulNotes/Portugal}} which is the country that introduced oranges to Greece.

Context Trivia / MyBigFatGreekWedding